


don't let our hearts freeze

by rayleigh



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, crack ship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-01-08 12:32:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12254463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rayleigh/pseuds/rayleigh
Summary: “There is always some madness in love. But there is always some reason in madness.” - Friedrich Nietzsche—but baby don’t let winter come, don’t let our hearts freeze; it’s an unlikely pairing, the two girls. they’ve broken themselves, trying to prove they’re more than what they’re supposed to be. they’re broken, but maybe it’s just enough to mend each other. multichapter





	don't let our hearts freeze

**Author's Note:**

> (lyrics featured are from halsey's empty gold)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first time Katniss sees Glimmer is when she sits with her escort and fellow tribute to watch the other districts’ reapings. When Glimmer’s name is called, Katniss watches her walk to the stage, and she feels this inexplicable flutter in her chest and she’s not sure if it’s because this girl could kill her in a million different ways with her bare hands, or because of the way her green eyes stared into her soul past her golden hair and through the television screen.

_I must confess/how hard i tried to breathe, through the trees of loneliness_

 

* * *

 

Deductive reasoning is a logical process that draws a conclusion from a specific example through the truth of a general statement.

Suppose that there is a stereotype, that the people from a certain place, of a certain social status act a certain way. Through deductive reasoning, one can infer that a single person from that one place would behave the way that others do.

 

* * *

 

It has been said, that the citizens of District One were bred to be perfect; beautiful, charismatic, and heartless. Perfect, to the people of the Capitol. These are the people who are beautiful enough to capture attention, charismatic enough to keep it, and heartless enough to succeed.

District One provides the Capitol with everything they value. From the gold and diamonds that adorn their bodies, to the paint and makeup they wear on their faces. But the most important thing they can provide are Hunger Games tributes, and of course, Victors.

Because there are two things the Capitol loves, and District One provides both: beauty, and entertainment. 

Katniss Everdeen doesn’t exactly understand them. She’s not a people person. To her, everyone is alien. Those from District One, are merely aliens plated in 24 karat gold.

And she doesn’t understand how these people are so confident in themselves, enough to the point where they dare engage in such a relationship with the Capitol: so close, yet so far from liberation. They are given so much special treatment and yet are still forced to participate in the Hunger Games. A reality show where _children_  fight to the death.

Entertainment.

They’re aliens; a glimmer in the eyes of the rest of Panem.

But Glimmer was the only person in the eyes of Katniss Everdeen.

 

* * *

 

A glimmer is defined as a faint, or wavering light. A gleam, a shimmer, a sparkle. 

Katniss’ favorite thing about the woods isn’t the sustenance or companionship it provides. Katniss’ favorite thing about the woods is that it is probably the most beautiful thing she has ever seen. Because beauty like that doesn’t exist within the bounds of District Twelve. 

Nothing else Katniss has ever laid eyes on can compare to the gleam on the leaves as the light shines on the trees, or the shimmer of the fog on a particularly misty evening, or the sparkle of the sun against the surface of the lake.

Until she sees Glimmer.

The first time Katniss sees Glimmer is when she sits with her escort and fellow tribute to watch the other districts’ reapings. The reapings are shown in order of district, and naturally District One is shown first. When Glimmer’s name is called, Katniss watches her walk to the stage, and she feels this inexplicable flutter in her chest and she’s not sure if it’s because this girl could kill her in a million different ways with her bare hands, or because of the way her green eyes stared into her soul past her golden hair and through the television screen.

 

* * *

 

There was this one Games a few years back, that Katniss remembers. A girl also from District One, who was beautiful, and charismatic, and heartless. She instantly became a Capitol favorite. It was widely speculated, from the moment her name was drawn, that not only would she win the Hunger Games, she would win over the Capitol.

She was trained to kill, and she was trained to be beautiful. She was trained to provide the Capitol with everything they have ever cared for: beauty, and entertainment. She killed eleven tributes herself, a Hunger Games record, and Katniss could only question _how_.

Katniss wondered if Glimmer would be like this girl. Alien.

Glimmer though, with her blonde hair and green eyes was never supposed to be a tribute. She was too beautiful. Of course, the entirety of District One was attractive to a certain extent. Full of tall, beautiful, blondes who looked more like angels than the devils they were, but Glimmer was more than that.

For fuck sakes her name is _Glimmer._

Glimmer is beautiful in every sense of the word. The ones who trained for the Hunger Games weren’t like her. Glimmer was soft. Elegant, not brawny. Her eyes were piercing, but kind. She didn’t have the cold, hardened, ruthless look. And she wasn’t heartless.

She wasn’t an alien.

She wasn’t supposed to be a tribute. She was supposed to parade around the district, draped in gold and silver and diamonds. To auction those things off to the Capitol. To sit there and look pretty and let her beauty do the work for her.

She was supposed to be a dud.

A dud would not have to work for anything in her life, and have everything served to her on a silver platter. To be both looked up to and looked down upon by her entire district.

Her future was set from the day she was born, but she didn’t want it to be.

 

* * *

 

In most districts, being reaped as tribute was the worst death sentence possible. District One wasn’t most districts. Katniss had heard stories, rumours mostly. That there’s an academy in the career districts One, Two, and Four, where children can sign up to volunteer in a gamble between probable death and slightly less probably fame and fortune.

It’s twisted, but Katniss can imagine a young Glimmer, still beautiful, with her equally beautiful tribute partner, signing up for these games. As if they weren’t designed to be a punishment.

And Katniss can imagine that she trains for years, before finally volunteering herself, as if it’s the ultimate honor. Watching year after year as the boys and girls she trained with go off to the Games. Watching as many of them died, but still enough of them live to tell their tale. Enough to convince her to volunteer.

As the television and everyone around her has moved on to talk about the next set of tributes, Katniss is still thinking of Glimmer and her emerald green eyes.

 

* * *

 

Sometimes Glimmer wished she did just become a dud. Because even though she was adequate at fighting, there were others who are better. She’s average. Average, with a pretty face. And she’s reminded why she wants to do this in the first place: to remind people she’s not just pretty. All that glitters is not gold.

Glimmer wasn’t supposed to volunteer for the Games.

She’s not good enough. There were others who were better. There’s this eighteen year old girl who can hit a dime with a bow, spear, and knife all from twenty yards, and she’s favoured to win by all odds. _She_ was supposed to volunteer. _She_ was supposed to win. It’s her last year of eligibility, and everyone knew she would win.

That’s not good enough for Glimmer. Glimmer cares less about the Games than she does for proving she’s not a dud.

Because with every comment she receives about how “beautiful” she looks, or how “charming” she is, or how “all this fighting is such a waste of a pretty face”, she just really wants to cut someone. To her, these aren’t compliments. They’re just a reminder to her that she wasn’t _supposed_ to acheive anything in life.

So when she volunteers for the 74th Hunger Games, she doesn’t hear the angry shouts, or the confused murmurs of the rest of her district. She hears the blood pounding in her ears and the voices of every single person who’s ever called her pretty.

 

* * *

 

When Katniss enters the Capitol, she is hurriedly rushed to be “fixed.” Fix that mud on her face, the hair on her body, the grime in her hair.

“Fix her,” they said.

And Katniss can’t help but think how Glimmer probably won’t have any of these problems. How the stylists and prep teams trip head over heels just for a chance to tell her she’s beautiful.

Or something like that, because Katniss doesn’t know why she thinks so much about the blonde from District One. Because she probably doesn’t even know Katniss exists. She’s probably preoccupied with the thought of other tributes who could be an actual threat to her and her beautiful face. Not someone like Katniss who would probably die on the first day. 

And it’s true that the Capitol is already fawning over Glimmer. And that her stylists already have an angle for her and her district partner Marvel. Because they’re beautiful. Charming. They could bring in thousands of dollars worth of sponsors with just a look.

Glimmer hates that too. Because the one reason she’s here is to escape the fate of her good looks, and yet that’s still the only thing people care about.

She wishes she could be like the girl from District Twelve. The one who volunteered for a reason. She’s brave, and that’s all people talk about. Not her looks; the shape of her jaw or the color of her eyes. She volunteered to save someone that wasn’t herself, and now she’ll probably die. 

Then Glimmer suddenly realizes how utterly stupid, and shallow, and superficial she is. Because here she is, having volunteered for what? To prove to _herself_ that she wasn’t just a pretty face, when there are people like Katniss who volunteered to a certain death to save someone they love.

She doesn’t know why, but in that moment, she decides that she will save Katniss Everdeen in the arena. Because if she can’t save herself, at least she could someone who deserves to. And perhaps that will finally give people something to talk about that isn’t her looks.

 

* * *

 

The opening ceremony is when everything really starts to feel real. It’s intimidating, to see the tributes at their best, dressed in an ensemble specially designed to showcase them and their district’s best features. 

Glimmer doesn’t think it makes sense, really, that most of them are dressed up so differently than who they actually are, and who they will become once they enter the arena. The citizens of the Capitol would barely recognize the majority of these tributes once they enter the arena. And sure, perhaps it’s tempting to sponsor and place bets on someone decorated with diamonds in the parade, but is it nearly as tempting when that same tribute is injured and emaciated a mere week from now?

Another thing that doesn’t make sense to Glimmer, is how she’s sprayed down in silver paint, with a gold and diamond encrusted toga barely covering her up. She came here—volunteered to come here—just to avoid being paraded for Capitol citizens in gold, and silver, and diamonds, yet here she is, doing just that.

She cannot wait to cut someone.

But she’s right. Because when all the tributes roll out on the carriages, one by one, district after district, she barely recognizes any of them.

Until they make a full circle and her chariot is right behind the District Twelve’s, who are on fire. Literally. On. Fire. And she recognizes Katniss, who looks relatively _normal_ , with her face nearly void of makeup and her hair put in a simple braid.

This is who a real tribute is. This beacon of true bravery. Someone who’s truly beautiful. Not herself, who despite looking like a silvery Greek statue, is a _coward_. The more she thinks of it, the truer it becomes. 

Katniss Everdeen should win these Games.

So when the crowd’s voices no longer shout for Glimmer and her beauty, she’s glad. Because they’re cheering for Katniss and she deserves it. So she smiles brighter, because that’s the closest she can get to cheering for the girl on fire.

**Author's Note:**

> this is the fic i’ve always wanted to write. for years i never thought i was a good enough writer, but here it is anyway. (with the help of coffee-filled mornings of writing, and wine-filled evenings of editing, it’s been published for your enjoyment).
> 
> tumblr @nostalgics


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